1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to methods and systems for fast access of computer-based memories.
2. Related Art
Modern computer-based systems often use wide memories that have a constant width. However, these systems must often manipulate a variety of variables having different data widths. For instance, a particular processor can have a thirty-two bit (four byte) wide bus with a thirty-two bit-wide random access memory (RAM), but must manipulate any number of variables having eight bit (one byte), sixteen bit (two bytes) or thirty-two bit widths.
One problem that can arise with such systems is that data can become misaligned with the physical boundaries of the available memory. For example, a first variable in a block of thirty-two bit-wide RAM may be a byte-wide variable while a second variable may be a four-byte variable. As a result, the first variable will occupy the first byte of a first memory location, while the second variable will occupy the remaining three bytes of the first memory location plus the first byte of the next memory location. One unfortunate consequence of this situation is that a computer accessing the second variable can take two separate memory-access cycles to either read or write the second variable.
While various approaches are available to align various variables having different bit-widths with the address boundaries of a memory, these approaches typically require a wasteful use of available memory resources or otherwise cannot be used with practicable systems. Accordingly, new technologies that can eliminate multiple-cycle memory accesses for misaligned data are desirable.